The Spring Edition of RTNA’s newsletter, Burning Issues, is out!  Click the image above, or HERE to download.  This season’s pieces include:

• direct action halting of heavy-haulers carrying tar-sands equipment shipments through Montana
• updates on Tim DeCristopher, his trial, and the next phase of resistance
• the resistance’s Nuclear Reaction- false dichotomies of energy, false solutions of nuclear, and where to go from there
• Kentuckians occupying their governor’s offices to demand the abolition of MTR
• shutdowns of the National Coal Council’s meeting in St. Louis
• Canadian resistance to the tar sands, including a takeover of trade ministerial office
• Olympia RT’s kickass campaign to stop a biomass power at Evergreen State College
• the March on Blair Mountain, and reports from the Coalfields
• a one-year lookback at the Gulf, from disaster to resumption of drilling
• and much more– take a look!

Well, we are here to help. It is a tough economy and jobs are scarce. Jobs that allow you to continue doing groundbreaking work on solutions to the climate crisis are even scarcer.

However, we are debuting a new section of It’s Getting Hot in Here to provide you with a one-stop shop to find many of those jobs, or at least where you can go to start looking. Climate Careers hosts the EAC jobs board widget, which streams headlines of the most recent jobs sent to the list. Sign up to get jobs in your inbox. Recent jobs listed are:

Executive Director of the Southern Energy Network (Athens, GA)
Campaign Director at Corporate Accountability International
…and for the more technically-minded: Application Engineer_Utility SCADA systems – SmartGridCareers

That isn’t all. We are also providing links to jobs boards at leading websites and environmental and climate organizations. Instead of Googling through a host of nonprofit websites, check it out and use it for a homebase when you are looking for the next internship or that job out of college. Even if you are an experienced campaigner, it is a good place to start looking for the next green job.

If you are looking to hire some of the top talent coming out of the youth climate movement, send your job description here: eac-jobs-board@googlegroups.com

Please, let’s makes this a resource for both job seekers and those looking to hire all you smart, capable It’s Getting Hot in Here readers, so tell me if I am missing jobs boards or what resources you would like to see in the Climate Careers section .

Crosspost from www.GaSmartEnergy.wordpress.com

Plans to construct two coal-fired power plants in middle Georgia were dealt a blow last Thursday as Dwight Brown, CEO of Cobb EMC- one of the nations largest Electrical Members Corporations (EMC)- was indicted on 31 accounts of corporate theft by taking, racketeering, making false statements, and conspiracy to defraud the government entities.  The charges come after 2 years of citizen activism and litigation, and help highlight corrupt business practices that allegedly continue within the organization today- as the EMC proceeds with $4.2 billion coal development plans.

Cobb EMC is the lead financial and logistical supporter of a coalition of electrical corporations called Power4Georgians LLC, attempting to build two 850MW coal plants in middle Georgia, despite the fact that no new coal plants have been started in the United States in the last two years.  In state filings Dwight Brown is identified as the lead “organizer” of the consortium, and is the lead signature in the plants’ permit applications.

The detailed indictment of CEO Dwight Brown lays out criminal business practices in which Brown and other EMC board members of the not-for-profit EMC created a for-profit business called Cobb Energy, and allegedly used EMC membership funds to piggy-bank multi-million dollar salary and compensation packages for Brown and Board.  Mr. Brown, after transferring nearly all not-for-profit assets to the for-profit Cobb Energy, charged the 200,000 person EMC membership an 11% mark-up on services that the EMC previously rendered, used EMC membership data to sell SCANA natural gas services at huge profits for Cobb Energy, and granted Brown a $3 million personal loan- which was soon after forgiven- used to purchased preferred stocks in Cobb Energy.  All of this while Brown lied to and deceived the EMC membership, who in organizational Bylaws are charged with democratically operating and affectively owning the not-for-profit entity.

Yeah, Shady (at best) right?

But it only gets better…

Power4Georgians LLC, the coalition of 6 state EMC’s attempting to build coal plants in Washington and Ben Hill Counties, is currently managed and operated by Allied Energy Services- a wholly owned subsidiary of Cobb Energy, funded by Cobb EMC membership.  Allied Energy Services CEO Dean Alford- also now the spokesperson for Power4Georgians- is a Cobb Energy Vice President, holder of 30,000 shares (worth $750,000) of preferred stock in Cobb Energy, and Dwight Brown real-estate partner and good friend.

Allied Energy Services won the no-bid-contract to develop the coal-plant projects because the consortium was looking for “the most qualified people, not necessarily to go get the lowest bid.”  Yet, neither Allied Energy nor Cobb Energy has ever constructed or developed a coal plant.  To date $27 million has been given to Allied Energy for development of the Power4Georgians coalition and projects, $11.5 million coming from Cobb EMC rate-payers and the rest from smaller EMC’s around the state.

It is easy to see that plans to construct two new toxic coal fired power plants, built at-least partially from EMC membership monies and amidst growing community opposition, are born from questionable corporate inbreeding which has itself focused on the projects profitability to a very small network of company executives.

Alford’s suspicious character isn’t a new development.  He caused a bit of a stir back in 1991, when, as a Georgia state representative, he voted for a bill mandating the Public Service Commission approve a $1.045 million contract that he had been hired to manage as a private businessman. In the past several years he has also been the target of several community-led protests drawing attention to his involvement in insider dealing and the lack of transparency in his organizations.

To top it all off, Dwight Brown is currently forcing EMC membership to cover his legal fees (ringing in to the tune of +$700 an hour for one attorney- former Ga. Gov. Roy Barnes).

All this corporate intersecting might otherwise seem “conventional”, but like all EMC’s, Cobb EMC is set up as a cooperative, where customers are given shareholder rights: democratic voting powers at annual meetings and annual dividends on company profits. However, Brown and cronies have  failed to communicate the EMC’s relationships, not allowed a democratic membership meeting since 2007, and annual dividends have been withheld for nearly 30 years.

At a Cobb EMC meeting of members held in the September of 2008, members voted nearly unanimously to oust all existing board members and to withdrawl the EMC from all Power4Georgians projects.  Needless to say, Dwight, Board, and legal team stated that no motions passed at that meeting were binding because existing litigation against the cooperatives leadership was/is ongoing.

Back in 2009, after learning about Georgia Bureau of Investigation raids on the homes and offices of Dwight Brown and several other EMC board members, 4 Georgia state EMC’s- then representing 50% of the Power4Georgians financial stake- dropped out of the coal development plans, citing the uncertain impacts of looming federal climate legislation and decreased demand in energy.

Citizens in Cobb County, where Cobb EMC operates, and citizens in Washington and Ben Hill counties where coal plants are proposed, are currently working together to publicize critical questions and concerns regarding the health, safety, and trustworthiness of the planned development.

• tired of reading articles like this about what’s going to be hot in 2011 (here’s hoping “the planet” doesn’t make the list)
• busy breaking those New Year’s resolutions you made

I hope we can all resolve (and actually do it) to make one thing hot in 2011 – calling that icky stuff pouring out of our economy “pollution” instead of “emissions”.

Like “greenhouse gas pollution” instead of “greenhouse gas emissions”, “carbon pollution” instead of “carbon emissions”, etc.

Without making this a big post about messaging and why it matters, I think it’s pretty easy to get that “emissions” sounds neutral or at worst just a little bad, like politely talking about someone’s fart, and “pollution”, well, tells it like it is.

Unfortunately, as the charts below show (make them yourself at Google Fight. Other variations, such as “GHG pollution”, look similarly lopsided.), most people haven’t gotten the message. IGHIH isn’t even doing as well as it could (see for yourself).

Climate terms that use "emissions" are way more common than terms using "pollution", and that's a problem for communicating how serious climate change is. Images courtesy googlefight.com

Not that we’re alone: Grist Magazine – here, here; Environmental Protection Agency* – here & here; White House – here & here. “Pollution” loses in every one. And if you don’t trust Google Fight’s count, just use those website’s own search engines and page through the results — you’ll get a similar imbalance. If people who care about stopping climate change can’t even call it pollution, why would anyone else, and why would we be surprised if people aren’t that worried?

Of course, these are just all results, not arranged by date. We can’t tell if people are using “pollution” more now than a few years ago. There a few encouraging signs this might be true. Harry Reid finally got it (but way too late) in last year’s climate legislation push. The EPA talked about pollution over and over in its release about new GHG regulations starting this year (but chose to talk about “emitters” instead of “polluters”). Wikipedia authors…not so much.

It’s not about objectivity

Some people might argue that emissions is a neutral term, and that it’s more appropriate for the government, scientists, and the media to talk about impartial emissions instead of “suggestive” term like pollution. But try searching for “water pollution” or “air pollution” from Reuters, the Associated Press, Google Scholar, or the EPA’s website, and you’ll see no one has any trouble talking about lots of other harmful kinds of “emissions” as pollution. And, fact, climate change is killing people. Sounds like pollution to me. Some of these places have long ago started talking about climate-related emissions as pollution, but the skew is still there.

So let’s resolve, in 2011 (and forever):

I will use “pollution” when I talk/write/think about climate change, not “emissions”.

Danger – words without actions

Calling things what they are is important, but let’s not forget that we also need to actually do stuff to make change.

* Disclaimer – I work for the federal government right now. This is a personal post, not the gov’s.

Hundreds of Millions Remain Peaceful In Face of Annihilation

As the story of the Discovery Channel hostage-taker makes it’s way through the media, those opposed to the sane management of the earth’s remaining resources will undoubtedly take the opportunity   to disparage all of the millions of environmentalists around the world and their ideas. [Update: they already are] However, I will argue that the opposite interpretation is more appropriate.

Organized by 350.org, October 24th 2009 was "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," according to CNN, with 5200 actions in 181 countries. No incidents were reported.

There have always been poor, misguided souls whose mental afflictions have led them to take as their own the cause of some group or another and turn it into something violent. No great effort of people, no movement for justice has ever become large without trapping in it’s gravity the occasional lunatic.

It is not surprising, then, that on Wednesday, one such man did something crazy in the name of environmental stewardship. James J. Lee, strapped with explosives, stormed into the Discovery Channel’s headquarters, took 3 people hostage, and was eventually killed by police. Injuries were limited to the hostage-taker and the types of  ideas he claimed to stand for.

What is surprising, is how starkly Lee’s actions stand out against the backdrop of the efforts of the worldwide environmental movement. The environmental community is enormous; it is decades old and includes members from every nation on the planet. The sheer numeric improbability that there aren’t more lost souls committing acts like Lee’s speaks volumes about the values and character of the individuals of that global society. The “environmentalist wacko” is an endangered species in its own right. When is the last time you checked the news and shook your head at all the eco-terrorist activities that filled the pages?

More astonishing still–consider that the consequence of a failed environmental movement is no less than the ruination of the only place that we can survive. There is everything to lose, yet with so much suffering at stake, millions of environmentalists carry this weight in their conscience without succumbing to desperation and destruction.

The big story here is that the habitability of our planet is hanging in the balance. The hook is that
(unlike governments that often jump to war when threatened) simple civil society worldwide remains mostly dignified, united and nonviolent, day after day, as our only planet is savaged for short-term profit.

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” Mohandas Gandhi

The administration of Utah’s former Governor Jon M. Huntsman (now U.S. Ambassador to China) commissioned an independent study to figure out how much, if anything, the state could save by switching to alternative, clean forms of energy.  Utah currently gets almost all of its energy through fossil fuel combustion, 82% of which uses coal.

Report says these things are dirty and expensive; report get's an "F" from state

It appears the current administration (Gary Herbert) and his coal-burning buddies don’t like what the report had to say:

“This [coal-based] resource mix…results in significant emissions of air pollutants and consumes a large share of Utah’s increasingly valuable water resources. The authors estimate that fossil generation in Utah today:

–consumes about 73,800 acre feet, or 24 billion gallons, of fresh water per year; results in 202 premature deaths per year;
–contributes to 154 hospital visits per year for respiratory injuries, and 175 asthma-related emergency room visits each year.

We estimate that the health and water impacts from Utah fossil generation have a monetary value of between $1.7 and $2.0 billion dollars per year (2008$), or between $36 and $43 per megawatt-hour (MWh) of fossil generation in Utah, a value similar to the direct costs of conventional electricity generation.”

Naturally, at this point, I would include a link to the PDF of the report. But I don’t want to do that to you. Get this: if you surf over to the PDF on the state’s website, a giant pop-up window (disavowing the findings) appears, the rest of the screen goes dark, and there is no way to click out of it. I’m no computer genius, so I had to “ctrl-alt-delete” and restart my laptop  just to finish this post. Sheesh.

Executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, Francine Giani, on allegations that they are suppressing the information. ”I hardly think that putting it up on our website is burying it,” she says.

Rocky Mountain Power has an even more glib response: “We disagree with the study’s conclusions.”

Utah is sunny, windy, and geothermal-y. Burning coal for electricity and selling most of it to California is short-sighted and unnecessary. Doing so knowing that it is killing its residents and costing them millions of dollars? That’s plain evil.

“We want safe jobs and clean energy
No more oil spills – Arrest BP!”

Was the thunderous chant echoing off the monolithic walls of BP’s DC headquarters today when hundreds of protestors turned out in force to deliver them a “Crude Awakening.” From the mouth of our megaphones BP got a strong dose of people power as we rallied and called for a “Citizens Arrest” of CEO Tony Hayward on the charges of criminal negligence.

More than a dozen network news cameras captured our outrage at BP’s criminal negligence to prevent and stop the unfolding disaster in the Gulf. (Check out the initial report from ABC News). Under the hot sun the energy of the crowd was palatable as we chanted and carried images of BP CEO Tony Hayward in a striped prison jumpsuit.

I MC’ed as speakers from Public Citizen, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Hip Hop Caucus (video) read aloud the charges against BP that included: polluting the political process, disregard for worker safety, price-gouging consumers and taxpayers, and violations of environmental laws.

The timing of the action couldn’t have been better; this week Attorney General Eric Holder announced he was opening a criminal probe of the oil giant. Holding BP criminally accountable is a bold step toward ensuring that the families on the Gulf get compensation for the vast damages to their lively-hoods.

After the speakers we set out to deliver our charges and the striped prison jumpsuit directly to BP. We took to the street shutting down traffic and flooded the doors of their headquarters with a throng of chanting activists and TV camera’s.

We held our position in front of the doors for another 30 minutes, though no one from BP came down to accept our “gift.” At the end Rev. Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, closed it out with a touching prayer for those that have lost their lives to the fossil fuel industry. We prayed for our elected leaders to find the wisdom to recognize creation’s bountiful and powerful gift of the sun and wind.

The action was a massive success! Though I can’t get over the tragic irony that as BP and other dirty energy companies continue to wreck havoc on our communities no one from BP has actually been arrested and sent to jail. Meanwhile clean energy activists like my good friend Ted Glick, of CCAN, are facing up to three years behind bars for peacefully hanging a banner that read: “Green Jobs Now” (video here). This injustice must end!

Fortunately actions across the youth climate movement give me hope. This summer youth organizers in communities across the country are working to Define Our Decade with 10 community based clean energy projects. These are living community models of the world we want to create.

Then this fall, young people are organizing to kick dirty energy out of politics by flooding the midterm elections with support for real clean energy solutions. Big Oil may be able to outspend us and pollute our democracy, but we’re the voters and that’s what counts. Sign up your campus or community today.

I have confidence we can break through the politically entrenched dirty energy interests holding our country back through local organizing that builds power and demonstrates the benefits of a clean energy economy.

We must make the drilling disaster our “Crude Awakening” and dramatically shift to a clean and safe energy economy now. As long as the oil is gushing and our communities are impacted by dirty energy’s pollution we will continue the struggle!

Countless men and women have for generations dedicated their careers -sometimes risking their lives and their health- to power our hospitals, school buses, homes, and businesses. America owes a debt of gratitude to those in the fuel industry for greatly contributing to the early growth and success of our nation. They deserve our respect.  But their welfare remains in peril along with ours until we convert to a clean energy economy.

Aaron Dale Burkeen was a 37 year-old crewmember on the BP Deepwater Horizon oilrig. He died with 10 of his crewmates on April 20^th, 2010 when the rig exploded. At his memorial service on May 25^th, his family described Dale as a “caring and honorable son, brother, and father.” America can honor him and our many other energy veterans best by creating safe, dignified, and sustainable careers for their children.

Dale is one of many heartbreaking casualties of the BP Oil Disaster. After the deaths of these 11 workers, Americans learned about the scores of crab, oyster, and shrimp fishermen along the Gulf Coast being put out of business, perhaps forever, as a result of the spill. Dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans, and fish are washing ashore dead and soaked in oil. The National Guard and workers are racing against time to erect sandbag walls in hopes of saving miles of fragile wetlands and salt marshes from the oil. Watching aerial video of miles of red streaks across the sea, and giant plumes of oil swirling under the water, it is clear that this nightmare has only just begun.

It didn’t have to be this way..

The Gulf Coast didn’t have to suffer the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history on April 20th. Twenty-nine West Virginia miners didn’t have to die in the worst U.S. coalmine explosion since 1970 on April 5th. Tennessee families didn’t have to be left with 300 acres of poisoned land and broken homes after the worst coal ash release in U.S. history on December 22nd, 2008. It is the year 2010. Energy does not have to cost lives. America can do better.

By now we should all know that the true cost of conventional electricity and fuel is far higher than the sticker price. Even if there never were another oil spill, coalmine explosion, or power plant meltdown, the costs of fossil fuel extraction would still be enormous. Air and water pollution, climate change, and resource wars are killing jobs and taking lives all over the world each day. Passing comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation in the U.S. this year is a critical first step to putting a price on fossil fuels. And yet, for a deeply divided U.S. Congress, that seems an enormous task. It doesn’t have to be so. We know we can do better.

The U.S. government began giving tax breaks for oil and gas production in 1916. Coal mining subsidies began in 1932. Most taxpayers have no idea that we are still propping up the fossil fuel industry with $12 billion in annual subsidies and tax breaks. Clean energy technologies such as wind and solar have received weaker and less consistent government subsidies and yet are already providing fuel and power all over the world without the ecological, economic, or human costs of fossil fuels. Something is wrong with this picture. We can do better.

Today President Obama and BP are focused on stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and preventing massive wetland and coastal destruction. These efforts will save lives and should be their first priority. But once the well is capped and the cleanup begins, we must open our eyes to what this means to our nation’s future viability. President Obama and the oil industry have a simple choice to make: put another band-aid on a decaying, dangerous industry, or set a bold course for the future. By setting a goal of phasing out all oil drilling and fossil fuel extraction by 2030, BP can live up to their “Beyond Petroleum” slogan. And by aggressively championing a nationwide commitment to clean energy technologies with a price on fossil fuels, President Obama can fulfill his promise to deliver “change we can believe in”.

America can and must do better.

Update with new video of arrests and inside report-back below:

Today in his first shareholder meeting as Chevron CEO, John Watson opened the annual shareholder meeting touting Chevron as a “good neighbor”. However, at that very same moment Watson was having communities from Houston, Alaska, Canada, Burma, Nigeria, and Colombia locked out of the shareholder meeting. Having legitimate and legal proxies, community leaders who had traveled for days to bring their community’s stories directly to Chevron’s CEO, Board of Directors, and shareholders, were silenced and disenfranchised.

Of 27 delegates from the True Cost of Chevron Network, all with valid legal proxy statements, only 7 were allowed to enter the meeting. This action directly contradicts Chevron’s own policies and potentially violates their own corporate governance laws.

“This is the way we have been treated at home and meeting them here was no different,” explained Emem Okom, founder of the Kebetkuche Women Development and Resource Center of Nigeria.

In an immediate response to Chevron’s lock-out, impacted community members and campaigners staged a blockade sit-in at the entrance of Chevron’s meeting (pictures). As a crowd of over 40 people raised their voices chanting “Let Them In” the sit-in participants committed to not leave until all voices were heard.

The 4 were arrested on trespassing charges and hauled into waiting police vans (pictures). The four arrested at the entrance were Juan Parras a long time environmental justice activist in Houston and founder of TEJAS, an EJ group fighting refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast; Rev. Jerome Davis a livelong civil rights hero who marched in Selma and has long fought for environmental justice in Richmond, CA; and Mitch Anderson and Han Shan from Amazon Watch, an organization working in solidarity with Indigenous communities fighting Chevron in Ecuador.

Before his arrest, Reverend Davis stated, “I represent an area where there is no beautyshop, groceries, or cleaners. Our industry is Chevron. My people breathe their contamination every day and are constantly sick. Our health is not for sale.” He embodied that today.

Following the arrests outside the meeting, attention turned to the on going meeting inside. In what has been said to the smallest shareholder meeting in a very long time (Chevron encouraged their shareholders not to attend) the 7 representatives who managed to get inside had an earful for Chevron.

Aileen Suzara, of the Filipino-American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, addressed Chevron’s operations in Manila, Phillipines, stating, “Over 80,000 residents in metro-Manila are threatened by Chevron’s toxic fuel tanks, constant leaks, spills and emissions. Chevron refuses to relocate its depot despite the public outcry and a Philippine Supreme Court decision demanding closure.”

Maria Lya Ramos from Rainforest Action Networks Change Chevron Campaign accompanied Mariana Jimenez a 71 year old a grandmother from Lago Agrio Ecuador. Ms. Jimenez asked John Watson about Chevron’s pollution in Ecuador. CEO John Watson replied “ My predecessor (David O’Reilly”) showed great empathy and I will do the same because it’s very clear to us that there is pollution in your area” This reads as insulting as if BP was showing great sorrow for their oil spill. It’s insulting and untrue.

Watson followed with a profoundly disturbing statement to Ms. Jimenez “We’ve been richly rewarded by that acquisition” (referring to Chevron’s purchase of Texaco who operated in Ecuador for decades). I question is the Ecuadorian communities living with record cancer and birth defect rates share the same “rich rewards” Such callus and insensitive remarks speaks volumes to Chevron’s lack of commitment to the communities it operates in.

Having heard enough rhetoric to last a lifetime Antonia Antonia Juhasz, Lead Author of “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report“ (which was attempted to be delivered the day before) gave a scathing critique of Chevron’s systemic destruction of global communities in which they operate. After her comments Juhasz began to lead a chant “Chevron Lies, People Die”. Thereafter CEO John Watson abruptly ended the meeting and had Juhasz dragged from the meeting room (video) to the growing chants of “Chevron Lies, People Die”.

In total 6 people were arrested and 20 people shut out by Chevron.

I for one just took a break for 5 minutes to process what happened today. I had never seen anything like it. One hand I’ve never felt so enraged at one corporations action in the face of the communities they impact, yet on the other hand (which is rapidly becoming a clinched fist) I was inspired by a growing global solidarity and an unwavering resistance, one in which I was fortunate to witness and be a part of today.

To take quick action on today’s events you can send a letter to the Board of Chevron HERE